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Talk:William Sherman
Supervolcano goof? In Supervolcano, a character paraphrases Sherman as saying he'd "wreck Georgia so well that even a crow would have to carry provisions." I've heard this expression, but in connection to Philip Sheridan and the Shenandoah Valley. Did HT (or the character) get the generals mixed up, or is the quote sometimes attributed to Sherman as well?JonathanMarkoff (talk) 03:12, June 14, 2016 (UTC) :It's reliably attributed to Sheridan. The closest Sherman ever said was the old saw about making Georgia howl. I don't think he was nearly as given to pomposity and grandiosity as was Little Phil. :I'd be surprised if HT made such an obvious goof. He's too well-read generally, and more specifically, he once had Clarence Potter riff on the same line, in relation t the Valley. It's not like him to make his characters get those things wrong, either. Usually, if they don't know enough to trot out and attribute the quote perfectly, they'll be vague instead. Take Flora's use of Booker T. Washington in the very last scene of TL-191: She's obviously paraphrasing, and even prefaces her paraphrase by saying it was "something like." Or when Jens Larssen comes out with the "Bound in a nutshell" line, he can't recall whether it's from Hamlet, Macbeth, or King Lear. :The closest analogous situation I can think of is when Dowling thought "They also serve who only stand and wait" came from Shakespeare. He wasn't too sure, asking Ophelia "Who said this, Shakespeare?" and she promptly corrected him. Based on that, if HT were doing the same thing here, you'd expect him to have someone say "No, that was Sheridan," like we're doing now. Of course it's not impossible that HT would have tried something new. This one's going to stick in my craw now. :At any rate, though I'm usually bemoaning your overuse of lit comms, I do think it's appropriate we use one here. It may not be clear whether this is an author or character error in the book, but we do want to make it clear it's not on our end. Turtle Fan (talk) 06:19, June 15, 2016 (UTC) ::What Jonathan did was add a Supervolcano sub-section to the Philip Sheridan article. I think that should go and the issue be addressed here as a Lit. Comm. as you suggest since no one in SV mentions Sheridan. The "See: Inconsistencies" part would be in the Lit. Comm. sub-section too. ML4E (talk) 19:03, June 15, 2016 (UTC) :::Of course he did. Every time he starts to impress me, he pulls something like that. Turtle Fan (talk) 22:25, June 15, 2016 (UTC) ::Incidentally, checking for the quote led me to wikiquote on the ACW, bullet point 7 indicating it was Grant making the statement to Sheridan about the Shenandoah Valley. ML4E (talk) 19:10, June 15, 2016 (UTC) :::Really? I'll have to check that. Never really thought of elaborate metaphor as Grant's strong suit. Turtle Fan (talk) 22:25, June 15, 2016 (UTC) Deletion And after all of that conversation, I think the Supervolcano section should go to the Historical References. TR (talk) 20:21, September 17, 2016 (UTC)